Our history - Q&A with the founders of Green Hat People

ES: A little over a decade ago, we both worked for big corporates, and led fun, hectic lives. To stimulate our intellect, we formed a discussion group in our hometown Stockholm. The aim was to seek out and enlighten likeminded individuals.

The group helped us discover that although life was great, something was missing. We needed a thrill, a challenge, something to ignite our passion in everyday life. Urban life can be almost too perfectly organised. Where are the mysteries? We were very inspired by the film “The Game” with Michael Douglas. In the film, he suddenly realises that everything around him is staged. The guy selling coffee every morning isn’t a barista; he is there keep an eye on him. The waitress he’s been tipping for months isn’t really a waitress.

From there, Green Hat People was born. We wanted to let people experience a thrill in everyday life, where they live and work. We knew technology could help achieve this and began creating mysterious challenges and missions for our friends to solve, delivered as phone text messages, with the city as their playground. Soon after, with popularity soaring, we created our own technology to come up with even more engaging, interactive ways to challenge people.

Eventually we saw our innovation as the perfect way to shake up the strict corporate environments we had left, to boost employee engagement, and began to market our products to businesses across the world.

GHP is now represented in seven countries across the globe, with teams dedicated to gamifying activities, facilitating active meetings and embedding culture & values in a engaging way for our clients.

What are the core values of Green Hat People?

NT: The first is to Never stop learning. We are always striving to be better, improving our knowledge with research and evolving through client feedback. Innovation is critical, something that is only possible through learning.

The second is We make it fun. The experience of working with and for Green Hat People must be enjoyable. Our mission is to enhance engagement and learning, something that can only be achieved if our clients, and our teams, enjoy the process.

Reliability is another. At all times we must succeed and hold ourselves accountable for the solutions we deliver. We realise that we are responsible for our clients’ reputations too, and so reliability must apply to both our team and the tech we create.

Lastly, and after some debate, we realised that the final value was ”Looks like A Million Bucks”. What we deliver is to the highest level, from the look to the feel to the experience. We both studies Japanese at university were both awed by the level of perfection a lot of Japanese companies deliver. You always know when an experience is a million bucks and when it is not.

Why is it important to implement core values across an organisation?

ES: When you work somewhere and have a sense of direction and purpose, the experience becomes more meaningful. By creating an environment that combines excitement, inclusion and meaning, you have something special; a culture where people want to work.

Core values create a sense of belonging, offering clear guidelines that connect with everyone in the organisation. For decentralised businesses such as ours, they enable you to share a common goal that unites people. From a business perspective, all of this leads to higher employee retention.

Talk us through the process you went through

NT: Like many smaller companies we’d had values for many years, but not formalised them. The first step was to listen. We asked every member of the GHP team what they thought of the company’s culture. Using our web app survey, we asked our team a series of fun, interactive questions. Questions like ‘what animal do you think represents our culture’, which we asked them to explain. Taking their answers, we went on to formalise our values.

Then, in November 2017, we presented them at an all company meeting in Stockholm, using our Core Values Game. In teams of five, our team were asked loads of questions about how they interpreted the values. We also prepared realistic case studies to make the behaviours more tangible. Finally, we debriefed using the data that came in.

After the game we wanted some real actions, “Make it happen”. We launched a team photo competition to explore the value “A Million Bucks” at the conference. Simple but effective. Take a photo of something that is a million bucks and get 2 points. Something that was not a million bucks and you get 1 point. As you can imagine they had a lot of fun! The teams were given free rein to explore and interact with their surroundings.

ES: Following this, we held follow up events. We showcased case studies where the core values were clearly demonstrated and held discussions. This gave our team the opportunity to learn, through real-life experience, how to live the values they had helped create.

What benefits have you found?

ES: Immediately a sense of togetherness came from the core values launch. There is a collective strength that comes when people feel involved in the progression of an organisation. Everyone is given the chance to voice their opinion, giving ownership of the process and representation.

We have also had feedback suggesting the values give a common language, something not always easy when you are decentralised. This sense of belonging helps everyone sell our products and service with pride and confidence.

What challenges did you face and how have you overcome them?

NT: The main challenge has been the cultural diversity of the team. With everyone from different parts of the world, speaking different languages, we have needed to centralise what we are trying to achieve. We were worried about the interpretation of the values too. That is why the meeting in Stockholm was vital, as it allowed us to present the values clearly, with tangible examples. The fact the process was fun and engaging helped to overcome the barriers, as did the case studies.

Is this a single event, or will you repeat this process?

NT: We see this as an on-going process, both to help new team members integrate quickly and to keep our team pushing towards a common goal. We will be pro-active in delivering follow-up events, and, as our core values suggest, will continue to listen, learn and adapt as the company grows.

What advice would you give to organisations looking to do a similar thing?

ES: From our experience, it is crucial you bring together as many people as possible when implementing core values. Give everyone a voice and they will respond.

NT: It is equally important to present the values in a fun, engaging way. People respond to being shown something, far more than being told.

ES: Demonstrate why the values matter too, don’t just say they do. Contemplate what the benefits of implementing the chosen values, and the risks of not. Offer contrast.

NT: Lastly, offer multiple launches. Be constantly refreshing and updating, then repeat the process. Keep things fresh, and ensure that the values are engrained from the very top to the very bottom.

"I have never experienced so many people spontaneously coming up to me and telling me how great the day was"

-Herman von Greiff, Country Manager, Sweden at Basware

"We got our message across in a really engaged way!"

-Alan Moore, Zurich Insurance

"The Exercise was the best part of the entire conference. Relevant, comprehensive and created the debate and reflection we needed."

-Niklas Werge, Head of Internal Communications, RSA Scandinavia

"Very engaging. I’ve never experienced anything like it."

-Securitas

"Holy Cow that was intense!"

-Annika Kitti, Electrolux

"Thank you so much for a very well executed workshop. It was extremely appreciated and gave us loads of energy!"

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